


Bridging Distance

by Ceares



Category: Die Hard (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Post Movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-14
Updated: 2012-12-14
Packaged: 2017-11-21 03:14:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/592813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ceares/pseuds/Ceares
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>A million thanks to F, TF and MM for the betas! </p>
<p>Happy Yuletide Aj. I hope this is something like you wanted.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Bridging Distance

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aj (aj2245)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aj2245/gifts).



> A million thanks to F, TF and MM for the betas! 
> 
> Happy Yuletide Aj. I hope this is something like you wanted.

The fourth is just another work day for Holly, especially with both Lucy and Jack out of the house. She likes how quiet the office is. The day is gorgeous -- double-paned windows block the heat and the noise -- and from her office the city looks like a kid’s building set, blocks stacked high.

She answers the phone absently, mind still on the papers in front of her, even after she notes it’s Jack. Lucy only calls on the weekends though she floods Holly’s personal email with messages all day. Sometimes just a forward with a comment attached or a set of pictures, but sometimes it’s a stream of consciousness on the kinds of things they used to talk about in the evenings when Lucy was at home. Jack, though, has never been adherent to schedules. He’s not big on email, but he calls early in the mornings and during what is nominally her lunch hour and sometimes late at night when she’s still in the office. His jokes, and stories about people that have made his asshole list remind her so much of John sometimes she has to blink and remind herself who she’s talking to.

“Mom.”

And he sounds so much like John in that moment that Holly flinches, braces herself because she knows it’s bad.

“They’re pretty sure it’s a terrorist attack. Cyber at this point but we don’t know what’s coming next. I talked to Da and Grandpa, told them to batten down the hatches and stay put. They’re okay but I can’t reach John,and Mom -- I can’t reach Luce.” 

Holly drives home in a daze, grateful she knows the way by heart because she doesn’t know how she actually gets there. Her hands shake when she tries to get the key in the lock and she takes a deep breath. She can’t... Holly’s not used to this, not for years. Not used to not having any power, not used to being terrified and knowing her world hangs in the balance but dumb to anything else. John, her parents, her babies are all thousands of miles away in the center of the storm and Holly can’t fucking do anything!

She tries Lucy and John and Jack again and again, getting the same not-in-service message.  
Her parents and John’s still have landlines, thank God, and Jack’s right, they’re fine. Jack said it was cyber and they’re not really affected at all until the power outage happens. They keep her updated as much as they can, because the news is worse than useless, conflicting stories flying left and right.

So she waits and she prays.

Her phone rings and when she doesn’t recognize the number she freezes a moment before answering. “Jack?”

“Mom?”

“Lucy? My God! Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Mom. We’re both fine and it’s not Dad’s fault. Okay? Don’t freak out and don’t try and come out here!” Lucy practically stumbles over the words because she knows Holly exactly. Holly sits because her legs won’t hold her any longer. She swallows hard before she can speak again, because as much as she didn’t want it to be true, a part of her knew they were in the thick of things.

“Lucy.”

“Seriously, Mom. It’s okay, but it’s crazy here right now. Power is still down and the roads are horrible.” There are harried voices in the background and loud sounds that do nothing to quiet Holly’s fears even though she knows the sounds of the aftermath of this kind of thing.

“Mom I have to go, but I’ll call you later. I love you.”

Holly doesn’t know how long she holds the phone after Lucy is gone before she puts it down but after, her hand is tingly, almost numb from gripping so tightly the plastic creaked under her fingers. 

 

She’d like to blame John for all the parts of Lucy that scare her and worry her and make her furious but Holly knows those parts are just as much her fault as his. She and John were always too much alike in the worst ways. The trouble magnet stuff though? That’s all McClane. Holly knows that however much the kids bitch about him, they love John and she can’t fault them for wanting to be near him, but Holly has been holding her breath for four years -- holding it since Lucy sheepishly showed her the first brochures for colleges on the East Coast, holding it since Jack told her about his summer internship -- waiting for the inevitable.

Holly finishes packing her bags. She’ll be in New York as soon as possible. She loses herself in work while she waits, the routine familiar and soothing. Those first six months in L.A. without John, her office was her haven. At home she was Holly McClane with the failing marriage and sad children, but at work she was Holly Gennaro, bright rising star.

 

The power is still partially out and the city is like an echo of itself as the taxi moves through it. Lucy is staying at John’s and she opens the door with her phone clutched in one hand and money in the other.

‘Mom? Oh my God!”

And then she’s in Holly’s arms, solid and warm and safe and knowing it, wasn’t the same as _knowing_ it.

They eat the pizza that Lucy was expecting and Lucy starts at the beginning. She’s nearly luminous as she tells Holly what happened, glossing over what Holly knows are the horrible bits.

“I just, I knew he was going to come for me, Mom, and that made it better.”

And Holly knows that no matter how many times she rehearsed the words on the flight over, she won’t say, “Come home.” She won’t say, “Bad things happen around your father. It’s not his fault, they just do.” Holly knows what it feels like to be saved by John McClane. Mayhem and near death are the ways John says ‘I love you’.

“They’re still working on the power, since Dad kind of blew it up.”

Holly shakes her head. “Insurance companies weep when they hear your father’s name.” They laugh.

“Classes are suspended till further notice.” Lucy sighs “It’s gonna blow if we don’t get credit for these. The one frickin’ summer I decide to stay here and take classes. I could have been in Paris with Aunt Joan.”

Holly doesn’t say she wishes Lucy had been. “Do you want to come back to LA?” She knows what the answer will be even before Lucy shakes her head, apologetic smile on her face.

It hasn’t really been home for Lucy for eight years. They still have most of their family on the East Coast and had always looked forward to trips back. It was yet another reason Holly hadn’t been surprised with Lucy’s choice of college. It was also yet another little thing that felt like a failure on Holly’s part. She took her family out to California and none of them -- not John, not Lucy, and not Jack -- had ever really accepted it as home. Now they were all back east except her. Not for the first time or the hundredth time, Holly wonders if it’s time for her to retire. She has several standing offers to consult, she has the money -- between her salary and bonuses, she has more than enough -- and she wants to be closer to her parents and her kids while she can.

“Nah, I think I’m gonna try and spend some time with Dad while he’s recovering. Make sure he doesn’t go back to work too soon.”

“Well, a wounded McClane is a dangerous animal, so be careful.”

“Hey, I’m a McClane too. I think I can handle it.”

She’s grinning but there’s stubborn determination on her face and Holly wishes she could be a fly on the wall for the upcoming battle. Even as a toddler, Lucy was hard to sway when she decided on something. McClane against McClane was going to shake the walls, and she had a feeling _John_ was going to come out the loser. That in itself was almost worth staying around for.

And Holly realizes that maybe she’s doing more than just thinking about retiring. Maybe she’s already decided. She’s almost breathless with it twisting inside her -- relief, grief, excitement, fear.

“Mom?”

“I’m fine. Just thinking.”

“I know. They must be losing it back there without you.” Lucy looks resigned and Holly has seen that look on her kids’ faces too many times when work called.

“I don’t know. I think they’ll probably be fine without me.”

“So, you can stay a little longer?”

The small, hopeful smile causes a pang in Holly’s chest. She takes a deep breath. “Yeah. Yeah, I can stay.”


End file.
